Lattice constant variation and complex formation in zincblende Gallium Manganese Arsenide

We perform high resolution X-ray diffraction on GaMnAs mixed crystals as well as on GaMnAs/GaAs and GaAs/MnAs superlattices for samples grown by low temperature molecular beam epitaxy under different growth conditions. Although all samples are of high crystalline quality and show narrow rocking curve widths and pronounced finite thickness fringes, the lattice constant variation with increasing manganese concentration depends strongly on the growth conditions: For samples grown at substrate temperatures of 220 and 270 degrees C the extrapolated relaxed lattice constant of Zincblende MnAs is 0.590 nm and 0.598 nm respectively. This is in contrast to low temperature GaAs, for which the lattice constant decreases with increasing substrate temperature.Comment: pdf onl

Evidence of polariton induced transparency in a single organic quantum wire

The resonant interaction between quasi-one dimensional excitons and photons is investigated. For a single isolated organic quantum wire, embedded in its single crystal monomer matrix, the strong exciton-photon coupling regime is reached. This is evidenced by the suppression of the resonant excitonic absorption arising when the system eigenstate is a polariton. These observations demonstrate that the resonant excitonic absorption in a semiconductor can be understood in terms of a balance between the exciton coherence time and the Rabi period between exciton-like and photon-like states of the polariton.Comment: 9 pages and 4 figure

Self-forces on extended bodies in electrodynamics

In this paper, we study the bulk motion of a classical extended charge in flat spacetime. A formalism developed by W. G. Dixon is used to determine how the details of such a particle's internal structure influence its equations of motion. We place essentially no restrictions (other than boundedness) on the shape of the charge, and allow for inhomogeneity, internal currents, elasticity, and spin. Even if the angular momentum remains small, many such systems are found to be affected by large self-interaction effects beyond the standard Lorentz-Dirac force. These are particularly significant if the particle's charge density fails to be much greater than its 3-current density (or vice versa) in the center-of-mass frame. Additional terms also arise in the equations of motion if the dipole moment is too large, and when the `center-of-electromagnetic mass' is far from the `center-of-bare mass' (roughly speaking). These conditions are often quite restrictive. General equations of motion were also derived under the assumption that the particle can only interact with the radiative component of its self-field. These are much simpler than the equations derived using the full retarded self-field; as are the conditions required to recover the Lorentz-Dirac equation.Comment: 30 pages; significantly improved presentation; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Absence of a consistent classical equation of motion for a mass-renormalized point charge

The restrictions of analyticity, relativistic (Born) rigidity, and negligible O(a) terms involved in the evaluation of the self electromagnetic force on an extended charged sphere of radius "a" are explicitly revealed and taken into account in order to obtain a classical equation of motion of the extended charge that is both causal and conserves momentum-energy. Because the power-series expansion used in the evaluation of the self force becomes invalid during transition time intervals immediately following the application and termination of an otherwise analytic externally applied force, transition forces must be included during these transition time intervals to remove the noncausal pre-acceleration and pre-deceleration from the solutions to the equation of motion without the transition forces. For the extended charged sphere, the transition forces can be chosen to maintain conservation of momentum-energy in the causal solutions to the equation of motion within the restrictions of relativistic rigidity and negligible O(a) terms under which the equation of motion is derived. However, it is shown that renormalization of the electrostatic mass to a finite value as the radius of the charge approaches zero introduces a violation of momentum-energy conservation into the causal solutions to the equation of motion of the point charge if the magnitude of the external force becomes too large. That is, the causal classical equation of motion of a point charge with renormalized mass experiences a high acceleration catastrophe.Comment: 13 pages, No figure

Dynamic algorithms in D.E. Knuth's model: a probabilistic analysis

AbstractBy dynamic algorithms we mean algorithms that operate on dynamically varying data structures (dictionaries, priority queues, linear lists) subject to insertions I, deletions D, positive (negative) queries Q+ (Q−). Let us remember that dictionaries are implementable by unsorted or sorted lists, binary search trees, priority queues by sorted lists, binary search trees, binary tournaments, pagodas, binomial queues and linear lists by sorted or unsorted lists, etc. At this point the following question is very natural in computer science: for a given data structure, which representation is the most efficient? In comparing the space or time costs of two data organizations A and B for the same operations, we cannot merely compare the costs of individual operations for data of given sizes: A may be better than B on some data, and vice versa on others. A reasonable way to measure the efficiency of a data organization is to consider sequences of operations on the structure. Françon (1978, 1979) Knuth (1977) discovered that the number of possibilities for the ith insertion or negative query is equal to i, but that for deletions and positive queries this number depends on the size of the data structure. Answering the questions raised by Françon and Knuth is the main object of this paper more precisely, we show •how to obtain limiting processes;•how to compute explicitly the average costs;•how to obtain variance estimates;•that the costs coverage as n → ∞ to random variables, either Gaussian or depending on Brownian excursion functionals (the limiting distributions are, therefore, completely described).To our knowledge such a complete analysis has never been done before dynamic algorithms in Knuth's model

Students\u27 use of personal technology in the classroom: analyzing the perceptions of the digital generation

Faculty frequently express concerns about students’ personal use of information and communication technologies in today’s university classrooms. As a requirement of a graduate research methodology course in a university in Ontario, Canada, the authors conducted qualitative research to gain an in-depth understanding of students’ perceptions of this issue. Their findings reveal students’ complex considerations about the acceptability of technology use. Their analysis of the broader contexts of students’ use reveals that despite a technological revolution, university teaching practices have remained largely the same, resulting in ‘cultural lag’ within the classroom. While faculty are technically ‘in charge’, students wield power through course evaluations, surveillance technologies and Internet postings. Neoliberalism and the corporatisation of the university have engendered an ‘entrepreneurial student’ customer who sees education as a means to a career. Understanding students’ perceptions and their technological, social and political contexts offers insights into the tensions within today’s classrooms

Experimental determination of the degree of quantum polarisation of continuous variable states

We demonstrate excitation-manifold resolved polarisation characterisation of continuous-variable (CV) quantum states. In contrast to traditional characterisation of polarisation that is based on the Stokes parameters, we experimentally determine the Stokes vector of each excitation manifold separately. Only for states with a given photon number does the methods coincide. For states with an indeterminate photon number, for example Gaussian states, the employed method gives a richer and more accurate description. We apply the method both in theory and in experiment to some common states to demonstrate its advantages.Comment: 5 page